1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pulse combustor for continuously combusting mixture of air and fuel gas supplied to a combustion chamber thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a conventional pulse combustor for pulsative ignition and continuous combustion of air/fuel mixture is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. Sho-64-23005. The prior art pulse combustor, as shown in FIG. 3, includes: a nozzle plate NP with plural gas nozzles GN and air nozzles AN; and a resistant plate RP disposed opposite to the nozzle plate NP via a narrow space S. Both the nozzle plate NP and the resistant plate RP are fixed in a combustion chamber R. Rich fuel gas is supplied through a gas conduit GP, the plural gas nozzles GN into the combustion chamber R while air is supplied through the plural air nozzles AN into the combustion chamber R by a fan F. The rich fuel gas and the air are mixed in between the resistant plate RP and the nozzle plate NP and ignited and combusted with spark of an ignition plug SP in the combustion chamber R. Large portion of hot combustion byproducts are exhausted through a tail pipe TP. Although the high explosion pressure in the combustion chamber R tends to cause a back flow of the combustion byproducts to the supply source, the resistant plate RP in the combustion chamber R prevents this undesirable back flow. Exhaustion of the combustion byproducts makes the pressure in the combustion chamber R negative, so that the rich fuel gas and air are again fed into the combustion chamber R and spontaneously ignited and combusted by the residual hot exhausted gas in the combustion chamber R. Ignition and combustion are periodically repeated in the above manner to heat an object like oil in an oil tank.
In the system of the prior art pulse combustor, however, combustion byproducts flown back to the supply source can not efficiently be mixed with the rich fuel gas and air in the combustion chamber R. Relatively high supply pressures of the rich fuel gas and air as well as the resistant plate RP are required to efficiently prevent the back flow of combustion byproducts. More concretely, the pulse combustor requires a high-pressure fan F or a compressor for supplying the high-pressure air and a complicated gas supply unit for supplying the high-pressure fuel gas. These structures unfavorably increase the noise and vibration.
Furthermore, in the prior art system, the fuel gas and air are mixed in the narrow space S between the resistant plate RP and the nozzle plate NP, and this causes non-uniform mixing and thereby unstable combustion.